


Sans and the Cold

by Jitterz



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bad Times Ahead, Evil Flowers, Gen, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 05:57:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5036452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jitterz/pseuds/Jitterz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans has a cold, and Papyrus is doing his best to take over both their work! I've never liked get well flowers much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sans and the Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Another attempt at writing in character for Undertale. Oh boy. Here we go... This story is for gastrblastr on twitter, and kind of mixes some stuff. I don't know what else to say in these! Not my characters, not my world, not my right plane of mind-space! *rolls away* Enjoooooy~!

Snowdin was alive with activity now that the humans and monsters were getting along finally. Not many of them wanted to visit the underground yet, but at least they had new items coming in and being traded. Apparently their old anime and manga collections were quiet valuable? They could even trade them for new better quality ones!

Payyrus didn’t really watch much anime still, but it made his friends over joyed. Undyne and Alphys had been marathon-watching shows for weeks! He was happy enough seeing everyone else around him happy, they had even began to cut back on the awful jokes finally. “About time!” Papyrus laughed to himself as he stomped with his big boots through the heavy snow fall. He was carrying a bag in his arms, and was being very careful not to drop it.

The local monster kids ran past as Frisk lead the charge away from an overly energized Undine. She shouted at the top of her lungs as she chased them, and Papyrus knew well enough how to dodge her usual chase. With a hop to the side that went unnoticed, Papyrus grinned wide and waved as they ran past. “Hey guys! Play nice!” He shouted after them and the bag crinkled a bit in the wind.

 

 

Sans sighed through his teeth and let his eyes droop some more. Staring at the ceiling had lost its charm after the first several hours and if he dozed off he knew Papyrus would freak out. Sans reached up and rubbed the back of his hand against where his nose should have been and sniffled. His book had long since dropped off the side of the bed, and in his current state he didn’t have the energy or will to pick it up.

“What do you call a skeleton with a cold?” Sans thought to himself, and grinned a bit. “Chilled to the bone?” His jokes were a bit off with his current fever… He couldn’t remember the last time he had a cold.

The sudden crash of his door being thrown open caused Sans to jump and look a bit more awake at the snow covered Papyrus in the door way. He was covered from head to foot! ‘Jeeze, pap, at least notice when you are covered in snow…’ Sans’ grin went a bit crooked as he watched his brother clomp over to the dresser next to the bed. He snickered as Pap suddenly slapped his hand against Sans’ forehead.

“Sup bro? You were gone a while.” He managed to say around clearing his throat.

“What is up, my brother, is YOUR COLD!” Papyrus wailed and pulled off his snow covered scarf and placed it on his brother’s forehead like a make shift ice pack. “Don’t tell me you got out of bed while I was out doing IMPORTANT business!”

Sans shrugged and closed his one eye as the overly large scarf drooped down onto his face some. “I’m going for a new record of lazy and haven’t moved an inch.”

 

Papyrus did not know if he could believe his brother or not. Sometimes he moved without… moving. So he couldn’t have moved an inch, but had moved? Grah! Sans grinned a bit more as he watched his brother stop his foot a bit, and then pick up his fallen book.

“Really brother, the science joke book from the living room? No wonder you’re not feeling any better!” He yelled, and shoved the book onto San’s chest.

Sans gave a small oof, and patted the book with his hand. “Well, did we get any new ones from the surface yet?” Papyrus did his best to fill his brother in on the news he had missed while being on STRICT bed rest under his ever watchful gaze.

The bag on the table sat unnoticed for a bit longer till Papyrus noticed Sans looking at it. Papyrus picked up the bag and dug out the first few items from within it.

“Frisk and Toriel were in town today, and they dropped off some things for you.” He said, putting on a disproving look as he handed Sans Toriel’s gift.

“Aww, a little joke book…” Sans said warmly, looking at the cover that read “Punny Buddy” with a bunny on the cover.

Frisk’s gift was a bit more practical. “Medicine?” Sans asked out loud, and turned the bottle over in his hands. It took him a moment to notice the label was written in what looked like crayons. “Hah.”

 

Papyrus beamed and stood proud. “See?! Someone else besides ME takes your cold as seriously as it should be taken!”

Sans did not have the heart to tell his brother that the medicine bottle was filled with a very sour candy and that the ‘prescription’ on it was to ‘take until your face gets all scrunchy and the cold runs away’. He took a candy from the bottle and placed his hand over his mouth to eat it. The face he made was akin to the ones Papyrus had seen others make when taking real medicine. Papyrus gave a firm nod and took the last thing from the bag. It was… a plant?

“I found this little flower a while ago! It’s kept me great company while your off being LAZY somewhere! So maybe while I’m out doing BOTH of our works, it will keep you company.” The pouty face Papyrus had on while he said this made it very hard for Sans not to chuckle.

“Thanks, bro. Speaking of work… are you going to be late like me?” Sans said with a wink and watched as the time of day finally caught up with his brother.

With a loud NYYAAAHAHAAHA! Papyrus bolted from the room and within seconds Sans heard the door front door slam shut. With a tired grin, Sans could finally get some rest.

 

 

The plant sat on the dresser, as normal as before. Its blue petals showed no signs of being a dangerous plant, and it quietly hummed with the sounds it heard from outside. The pot it was in, however, began to wobble. The blue flower began to rise up out of the pot, its roots snapping silently as the creature beneath it broke free. In the dim light of the room, two black little eyes peeked over the edge of the flower pot and at its prey. This had been a long time coming, the creature thought as it harvested the echo flower above it for energy, and the time was finally right.

Sans bolted awake at the sound of the pot shattering against the floor, and sat up slightly to look over it. He gave a relieved sigh when he saw the poor plant had probably just been left too close to the edge and Papyrus’s mad dash out of the house probably didn’t help its relationship with gravity. Sans shrugged off the tiny voice of Pap’s yelling at him to stay in bed, and swung his slipper covered feet over the edge and onto the floor. He carefully moved over and scooped up the mess and placed it back on top of the dresser. He looked at it a moment and thought the plant looked a lot worse for wear as well since he last opened his eyes. He straightened one its torn petals a bit before rubbing his sleeve against his nose and going back to bed.

 

Papyrus looked at the list in his hand of the things he thought Sans usually did that counted as “work”. He had to admit, the list wasn’t very long, it was so short that he had to fill in things around the list to have enough to do! He had already finished dusting off their old stations from the human watching days, and was now on his own penciled in “avoid skeleton noogie time and think of puzzles”. Unfortunately for Papyrus, he did not hear Undyne sneaking up behind him… The loudest “NYAAH!” of the day echoed throughout Snowdin and was muffled to a soft whisper by the snow fall before it could reach the brother’s home.

Sans’ chest slowly rose and fell as he slept off his cold. The tiny joke book had found its way not onto the floor, but safely within his jacket pocket along with the “medicine” from Frisk. Papyrus’ scarf lay in a tangled mess around Sans’ one arm where he had tiredly tried to wrestle the large cloth off after laying back down. Between the red and blue fabric, a sickly green shade had begun to slowly creep its way towards the physical heart of its goal.

 

Papyrus tried his best to run from Undyne. All the training was going to finally pay off he thought just before she leapt up in the air and landed squarely on his back. She surfed on his back as they both skidded along the snow, and finally got off when Papyrus had said uncle enough times to be a great-great-great-great-great uncle. He sat up and rubbed his overly large gloves over his face to dislodge the snow. “Undyne!” He pouted, “Why must you do that?!!”

Her response was a shrug, and then shouted something about Anime and the “finishing blow” before summoning her sparing spears. Papyrus decided very very quickly that it was time to do something on Sans’ list and that was disappear into Grillby's for a while. He back flipped off the snow and right through the doorway. Undine grinned wide and gave chase. “Grease can’t save you now, PAP!”

 

 

The usual hum of the outside slowly began to be drowned out by a sort of ringing in Sans’ ears. He thought to wake up, but decided it must be from the cold. He opened his eyes slightly and was greeted by a very sharp and very sudden pain within his chest. With a garbled shout, he tried to lift his arms to grab at his chest but found he couldn’t lift them far enough. They felt like they were filled with lead and his control over them was fading fast. The pain lead to fear, which lead to panic as Sans’ eye lit up and he forced his one arm to break free of whatever was making them so heavy and grab at his chest as he forced himself to sit up. His grip over his own body seemed suddenly so shaky, and even with the assistance of his power, Sans felt his was losing it. This couldn’t be from the cold… could it? Sans started to see spots in his vision and the room began to spin. He was draining what energy his body had managed to recover from resting, and he couldn’t even call out. His hand shakily held onto a bundle of his shirt and he tried to tug his shirt collar back enough to see what was causing this pain. Was… was that his… soul?.. were those…vi… Sans’ body hit the point where it flipped the tables on Sans’ will and shut down. He collapsed back in bed, his power fading from his eye as he drifted off to a place he did not think was rest…

 

The inside of Grillby's was as uncomfortable as Papyrus remembered it, but thankfully the Greater Dog had been happy enough to hide him from Undyne as she stomped around the place till Grillby silently scolded her for doing so. Papyrus did his best to pretend he was Sans and left without getting noticed. Once back outside he took a great big gulp of cold clean air before deciding he’d best go check on Sans. He bet his brother had moved-not-moved the moment he left and was probably in need of his awesome brother’s assistance.

 

Sans slowly began to come to, and after a while noticed he was face down on a tile floor somewhere. With great effort he lifted himself away from the cold floor and looked around. Something hit his hand as moved to sit up, and looking down he saw it was a little flat square of plastic. Sans held it in a hand for a moment before he realized the face on the I.D. card was his… Big toothy grin and all…

 

Papyrus did his I’ve-got-places-to-be march back to the house, and reached for the door knob to open the front door once he arrived. As he did however, the door opened slowly and a very familiar grin was waiting for him on the other side.

“Sans! Didn’t I JUST tell you to stay in bed and-” Papyrus was suddenly cut off as he felt his whole body get pulled through the threshold of the home. The door slammed shut with such force that snow fell from the roof.

 

 

The dark lab was slowly becoming visible to Sans. He felt different here, smaller, and less… everywhere. He placed a hand on his head and felt as if a large part of his being was missing. Within the lab were items Sans could remember working with daily, and he slowly made his way over to a work station that he could have sworn he walked to a million times before… There was a picture on the desk. He reached out his hand and carefully tilted the frame so the low light caught it. There were no faces…

 

Papyrus shook in his overly large boots. This was not his brother. This could not be his brother. No. Something had happened, a very very bad thing had happened! What was not Sans, but was, stood over his crumpled blue form with a sickly version of his brother’s grin plastered on its face.

“Hey bro, you sure do like to spend time away from home.” The not Sans said, and lowered his hand more, slowly crushing Papyrus down against the carpet until he could barely see the thing that was not his brother. “Take a little vacation, okay? We’ll see some new sights in the morning.” That was the last thing it said before Papyrus felt something heavy hit his whole being and caused him to black out.

Flowey tested the limits of his new puppet and threw the couch up the stairs with a flick of the wrist. That old lazy bones had been holding back! Using this power was something new, and so much fun! He skipped a bit to the kitchen and paused for just a moment to look at the trash can for reasons he could not explain, before reaching under the sink for a large bone. “I’ve got a bone to pick with this town.” He snickered and headed for the front door. He looked down at Papyrus’ form for a moment, and grinned wide, his eye glowing. “Let’s save the best for last, eh?” Flowey tugged the scarf free from his puppet’s arm and wrapped it snugly around its neck. “Might as well make myself at home, HeehEEHEeEeHe.”

 

Sans felt a pang of worry shoot up his spine and he quickly looked around the lab. He was alone at work late at night? He blinked for a moment and brought a bony hand to his face and tapped the glass in front of his eye sockets that he could have sworn wasn’t there a moment ago… Something in his rib cage ached and Sans couldn’t shake the feeling like his bones were shivering. Did he try and work another all night shift and collapse? No… something else felt wrong…

 

The heavy snow fall helped muffle the screams along with the ringing in his ears as Papyrus slowly began to come around again. He wrapped the base of his skull in his overly large gloves as he got up carefully and saw the front door wide open, snow already blown in making a small slope into the living room. Papyrus slowly made his way to the front door, using the wall as support, until he could poke his head outside. What was once a highly active Snowdin was suddenly dead quiet and that made Papyrus feel ill.

“S…Sans?” He whispered, afraid the not sans might hear and answer him. “B-Brother… where are you? I.. I’m not fond of this joke a-anymore.”

The silence was heavier than the falling snow, and Papyrus tried not to notice all the crazy foot prints and large dents in the snow as he made his way towards the center of town. An eerie crisp blue glow was visible along the edge of town and Papyrus knew… He already… He had to see it though, and his uneasy knees carried him there. He had to see it… and he had to… he... He had to stop it.

 

 

Sans sat down at his old work table and flipped through his old note book with a heavy sigh. A project they were never going to launch with a book so thick with notes that it could probably crush his br… Sans’s usual grin suddenly began to fade and his hand stopped flipping through the book. He looked around his desk and noticed something was missing from this scene. The second picture frame he always kept on his desk. Sans got up and started to rifle through the stacks of papers and books that littered the entire area in a 3 foot radius. Did it fall off the desk? Did he accidentally set a book over it? Where was this picture? He needed to see it suddenly; he was forgetting what that picture held. Darn it, he KNEW he needed to see that picture!

 

Papyrus held his sides as he looked at the scene before him. The shadowy outline of the figure standing in front of the blue glow’s source was a shape Papyrus could recognize in any light… It wore his scarf, the scarf he had left with his brother… Papyrus’ vision focused on his brother’s hand held up high, and looked at the source of the light. The town… the town monsters… their friends, their neighbors… Papyrus felt like he wanted to shatter and not have to see this.

“S-SANS!” He found himself yelling and summoning his own attack. The attack his br… his brother had taught him..

Flowey dropped the items that no longer entertained him and watched as they puffed into ash as they collided with the snow below. “Turns out you can squeeze the lift out of the party.” He grinned wide and turned to face Papyrus, sticking his hands in his pockets and shrugging. “What do you plan to do with that, brother?”

Papyrus held his attacks ready, and could now make out something wound around his brother’s arm and creeping along his…his eye socket. Something very wrong had happened.

“Y-You’re not going to use m-my brother any longer, fiend!” Sounded a lot braver in Papyrus’ head. The monster controlling his brother seemed to find it funny and laughed loudly.

“Oh boy! I almost feel bad for this! You truly were my greatest fan, Papyrus.” Flowey laughed and raised his hand. “I’ll make sure your ashes are as wide spread as my reign of terror will be.”

 

Sans huffed as he sat down on the tiled floor and felt a pit in his gut. He couldn’t find it. He’d lost that too, and something else he couldn’t remember. Sure there were side effects to their work, but Sans’ didn’t expect memory loss. That was new… or was it? How do you remember what you can’t remember what you forgot? He’d have to start keeping a log book of this… or had he already? He had almost left it in the house once and Pa-

With a loud yell Papyrus fell back into the pine like trees of the underground and felt his battle body armor take the front of the damage. He patted a gloved hand over the large dent that otherwise would had been his rib cage.

“Come on, bro. I can’t kill you yet. It will break my new toy and I can’t have that. Not yet. Not in this time line.” Flowey said, getting a little kick of watching Papyrus’ face try and decide on what expression to keep. Confusion? Fear? Determination? It was SO entertaining. It was true what he said though… he was only keeping a grasp on this bone head’s body thanks to the cold and some memory blockage. Otherwise Flowey could tell Sans would awaken enough to rip him right out of his chest. Well, there was no need to tell that to anyone… is there… reader?

 

Sans held his head as he was doubled over with his forehead pressed against the cold tile floor. Something, he just… what was it?! It was causing an itching sensation in his chest and a burning in his mind. This… it’s not… not a cold. Sans wonder if he was ill? No? Something else? “Come on, you bone head! THINK!” He hissed to himself, and head butted the floor. Ow, bad plan. He sat back up and rubbed his forehead. Now what was he doing to do? Sans didn’t have much else to think about before two large glowing eyes appeared in front of him. Sweat began to drip down his skull as the eyes found a home within a large monster skull that just sort of floated in front of him.

He gulped loudly and held up a shaky hand. “H…hello?” The monster narrowed its eyes and opened its massive bone jaws. It let out a roar that shattered everything Sans was currently aware of into a blinding bright blue light…

 

 

Flowey was having fun tossing Papyrus from roof top to roof top. “I heard you get gifts from Santa! Do you feel like him yet? We could always hit a few more roof tops before heading to the next town! Hahaha!”

Papyrus felt himself getting tossed again and he barely had a chance to catch his breath before he was slammed down into a snow bank. He was suddenly missing Undyne’s mean tricks… had she gotten taken out with the others…

Flower walked over to the still form of Papyrus who lay wheezing in the snow, and knelt down some. “You really should have spent more time talking with your brother than with me, Pap. There is sooo much you don’t know about him.” He said and placed a hand over Papyrus’ eye. “I should make you two match? So even after the last bit of him is gone you’ve still got something to remember him by. “ Papyrus cringed and Flower grinned like a mad man.

A sudden pang of pain shot through the eye Flowey now controlled and he howled loudly as his body instinctively threw itself back. The pain felt like it was burning its way all throughout his body. Flowey could feel what was keeping him in control of Sans body being burned away by a flame he could not see, and it hurt! It hurt like nothing Flowey knew. He rolled in the snow, shoving it under the shirt and in the jacket of his body. He was so busy trying to cool down the flames, he didn’t see Papyrus stand up slowly and raise his hands.

“S…snow sorry… brother…” Papyrus said, and Flowey turned around just in time to see a large wall of blue snow coming at him. The next thing he knew he was air born, over the trees and down… down…

 

It was not the softest landing, nor was the fall the quickest. Several trees mocked the flower’s existence by catching and snagging his body as he fell till he eventually got stuck in a tree. There he hung, his arm trapped by one branch, his foot another, and the vines that clung to San’s soul wrapped around one last final branch. It was if nature existed to mock him.

“Hnn…” Flowey noticed that he had lost the ability to control what Sans said, and instead focused on trying to free his body with the limbs he could use. The sound of falling snow and branches still dropping from the fall sounded off in the woods around him. Flowey did not like how things were growing quieter. All sound suddenly stopped and Flowey froze mid branch-strangle.

A soft crunching noise began to approach Flowey and he could feel what felt like time slowing down. Or was it speeding up? The trees turned to silhouettes alone and the snow began to fall up towards the skies, back the way it came. Flowey watched with wide eyes as a stick that had fallen moments ago flicked from one spot to the next, unsure of where it wanted to exist and when.

A figure stood before Flowey, a figure he could not recognize, and it wore a warm smile on its face. Flowey… never felt so scared.

 

Papyrus had been trying to bury his tears in snow, scooping large amounts from the area around him and piling it onto his head. The sounds of his wailing and sobs were the only noise within Snowdin, and were soon the last sound within Snowdin. His shaking stopped, and the snow falling around him slowed to a halt. A hand landed on his shoulder and carefully pulled Papyrus back and away from the snow. Back further and away.

Snowdin faded away to silhouettes and then to nothing…

 

With a sudden sneeze, Papyrus woke up. He was in his race car bed and his scarf had fallen over his face in his sleep. He pawed it off his face and while kicking the blanket off with his legs he sat up. Kids were screaming outside his window as Undyne roared and chased them. Papyrus sat in bed for a bit, trying to remember what he did before bed… did he eat some bad food Sans tried to cook? Last time he tried his cooking… it ended well for no one. The sounds of loud coughing caused Papyrus to become worried and bolt from the bed.

He rushed quickly and silently down the hall towards his brother’s room. Sans had been sick for several days now… and this was worrying. Papyrus carefully pushed the door open. The first thing he spotted was a pair of fluffy slippers placed at the foot of his brother’s bed, and a strange over whelming feeling of relief swept through his bones as Papyrus saw Sans sound asleep in bed. He was still coughing and sniffling, but otherwise he seemed fine…

Papyrus quietly closed the door and thought for a moment he should call Frisk and ask if they wanted to help him gather get well presents. He shook his head and decided what his brother REALLY needed… was an amazingly crafted plate of spaghetti finely crafted by his BEST brother!

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in one sitting. Please do let me know if I added or missed some words. Thank you! *runs in tiny circles, slowly into the distance*


End file.
